I think my hive might be queenless. They were doing great, good brood in December, building up a little bit. I was thinking maybe to split before the flow.
But just this past weekend their flying in a cloud around the hive, very defensive, not really doing organised foraging. A friend said that sounds like no queen.
I opened the hive Saturday and found only a couple larvae and a couple fresh (1 or 2 day) eggs. And I think an emergency cup. Definitely not a nice brood nest with lots of brood. Unhappy.
How do I find a queen in February?
I'm thinking maybe to take the opportunity to go ahead and split into two small hives with new queens?
I'm also terrifically confused by the presence of fresh eggs. Workers laying in desperation?
I found approximately the same thing in a couple hives last week. I think it may just be a slowdown from our recent cold spell. I am going to leave as is for another week and check again. I will decide what to do at that time.
What Iddee said. Does not sound like queen less.
You may have a new supercedure queen with the mother still in the hive. It may have been that what you saw is a queen going on her mating flight and the bees swarmed to protect her as she left the hive area.
A more likely case was you just saw an orientation flight. Was it a few hours before sundown?
Jim
Well, this is encouraging, for sure. And they haven't absconded. Which is great given the experience of several.
I switched hive bodies just before the cold snap. :/ I thought I might have lost them. But no, they're all there. For the past week they've been making a little beard on the front amd flying around, staying close. And pissy, I got popped in the knee for sitting down a few feet away, to the side.
I chalked it up to the weather, it's been blustery, overcast, in and out of rain. But then
Two miles away on the same day, my friend's bees are acting like it's spring, foraging in and out. And a big brood nest, whereas mine is two eggs and a larvae.
Maybe I messed them up swapping the boxes? The whole of the nest was in the top box and the bottom was empty drawn comb.
Matt,
You didn't mess them up switching up the boxes. You probably just injured several bees while putting them back together. The bees around them remember it as an attack and remain defensive. It usually takes up to 3 weeks for them to settle down.
Next time, use a little smoke around the edge to move them inside and place the top box turned and then slowly turn it into place.
Jim
Matt, 2 eggs? Maybe you're missing them. I use a jeweler's visor when I can't see any. Make sure you hold the frame so the sunlight can shine in the bottom of the cells.
Ya know what I did? Looked in the wrong box. Because I had switched them, the brood nest was on the bottom, and they really were grumpy so I didnt look thru the bottom box, only found a couple eggs at the bottom of the frames in the top box.
And they were doing this, my friend said that might mean queenless, and I kinda freaked our. https://youtu.be/cWw4-PaC4y4
But I opened the hive yesterday, amd found the brood nest spans both boxes, about four frames in each box. And the queen, boy is she big! And definitely there!
So thanks for putting up with my freakout.